Back on top again

Yesterday, I posted a comment on this post, a “five years later” comment about Library Stuff that included some doubt as to what it was and where it was going. So did a bunch of other people: The Big Name library bloggers (of which I’m not one) pretty much agree that we all have blocks from time to time–I’m still emerging from a huge block–and that summer’s a perfect time to take a break in blogging and come back refreshed.

(A suggestion, Steven C.: Get a more reliable comment system! It took me two tries for YACCS not to time out, and more than half the time I’ve given up on commenting at Library Stuff because of YACCS/RateYourMusic problems.)

As part of my post, I included the comment “You’ll be back. (You have to hear the Austrian accent in your mind.)” [That may not be the exact wording; it’s really hard to get through to YACCS comments some times, and I’m not trying yet again.]

Other than including the “congratulations on five years of service to the library field” that I failed to include in my comment–I give Steven C. a bad time now and then for being too eager to shut down “older” net media, but that’s only because he’s worth reading and paying attention to–this post [another unparseable Saturday morning sentence, almost done] is because I wasn’t really hearing the Governator saying “I’ll be back” when I wrote the post.

I was really hearing Lucifer, in the guise of Randy Newman, singing “I’ll be back on top again, running things…”–from You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down, one of the many great songs on Newman’s, um, less than wildly best-selling musical-on-CD, Randy Newman’s Faust. (I have the single-CD version; some day, I’ll get the two-CD version…)

As I thought about it, I decided that comparing Steven C. to Lucifer might be misinterpreted. And that almost nobody’s ever heard the Newman song (Randy Newman says the royalties from Faust should keep his daughters in toothpaste through college). And that some folks hereabouts might take offense at what I suspect is Newman’s view of religion, as expressed in the wonderful Glory Train.

The point? None, really: It is, after all, a Saturday in August that’s likely to be hot. I’m working at my splendiferous new 19″ Sony LCD (yes, my wife figured out a way to protect the screen from our cats–it involves a cheap Target poster frame’s plexiglass front panel, two cup hooks, and some Velcro straps). The day’s going to be another hot one.

Those of you not hung up on “sacrilege” might enjoy Randy Newman’s Faust. It features James Taylor as the Lord–I mean, who else?–and some great work from Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, and Don Henley. Gainesville is one of the prettiest “city-related songs” (it’s a love song of sorts) in Newman’s enormous city-related catalog. Feels Like Home is another wonderful ballad. And, before it turns into a religious discussion, Glory Train is a classic upbeat spiritual anthem.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 6th, 2005 at 11:44 am and is filed under Writing and blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

*All Cites & Insights PDF ebooks are explicitly site-licensed for
mounting on a library's server and providing to authenticated users. That
includes The Gold OA Landscape 2011-2014, A Library Is..., Beyond the
Damage and any others.